Blog

We keep you up to date on the latest tax changes and news in the industry.

Place It In Service If You Want To Deduct It

Article Highlights:

  • Sec 179 Expensing 
  • Tax Planning Tool 
  • Placed-in-Service Requirement 
Section 179 is a provision of tax law that allows owners of small businesses to expense rather than depreciate equipment purchases made during the year. It is also a popular tax-planning tool allowing business owners to reduce their income for the year by making last-minute year-end purchases. For 2017 up $510,000 ($255,000 for married taxpayers filing separate) of qualifying expenses can be written off. Qualifying property includes machinery, tools, computer equipment, certain leasehold improvements, etc.

However, there is an often-overlooked requirement of Sec 179: and that is not only must the purchase be made before year-end, the purchased item must be placed-in-service placed in service before year-end in order to expense it in the year purchased.



Generally, for Sec. 179 expensing purposes, property is first placed in service when it is placed in a condition or state of readiness and available for it’s a specifically assigned function. For example, a new printer is purchased on December 29, 2017 but is not taken out of the box and connected to the computer system until January 3, 2018. Under these circumstances the printer is deductible in 2018 and not 2017.

Therefore, if you are making year-end purchases to increase your 2017 business expense deductions, be sure the property you purchase is placed in service before year’s end. Please call this office with questions.



Share this article...

Sign up for our newsletter.

Each month, we will send you a roundup of our latest blog content covering the tax and accounting tips & insights you need to know.

I confirm this is a service inquiry and not an advertising message or solicitation. By clicking “Submit”, I acknowledge and agree to the creation of an account and to the and .

We care about the protection of your data.


“We are always looking to grow our business. Should you have any clients, friends, business associates looking for high quality accounting services from a CPA firm, please have them contact us.”

This e-mail (including any attachments) is only for the exclusive use of the individual to whom it is addressed. The information contained hereinafter may be proprietary, confidential, privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, the reader is hereby put on notice that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If the reader has received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail and delete all copies of this e-mail and any attachments.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: In order to ensure compliance with IRS Circular 230, we must inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this transmission and any attachments hereto is not intended or written to be used and may not be used by any person for the purpose of (i) avoiding any penalty that may be imposed by the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.

Richards Group PC, CPA We love to chat!
Please feel free to ask a question, our Ai chat assistant would love to help.
Please fill out the form and our team will get back to you shortly The form was sent successfully